S.14.E06: The Blind Auditions Part 6

[PhD-Purgatory15]

The four teams will be complete at the end of this hour long episode.

Given that Adam still has three slots to fill, I feel reasonably confident assuming that at least two of Adam's selections tonight will be montage'd.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Completed teams (#chair's turned iirc); asterisks mean they got the dreaded montage treatment. New artists from tonight's episode in italics...

Adam (12)

Rayshun LaMarr (2)

Drew Cole (2)

Davison (2)

Angel Bonilla (*2)

Mia Boostrom (1)

Reid Umstattd (2)

Stephanie Skipper (2)

Trish Haynes Keys (2)

Miya Bass (1)

Genesis Diaz (2)

Jackie Verna (1) **Blake and Alicia's teams were full when she auditioned

Gary Edwards (2)

Alicia (12)

Britton Buchanan (3) *Blake used his block on Adam

Kelsea Johnson (3)

Jaclyn Lovey (2)

Christiana Danielle (3)

Jamai (2)

Johnny Bliss (4) *Adam used his block on Kelly

Terrence Cunningham (4)

Megan Lee (*1)

Jordyn Simone (*1)

Livia Faith (3)

Shana Halligan (1)

Sharane Calister (2)

Blake (12)

Kyla Jade (2)

Kaleb Lee (2)

Pryor Baird (4)

Brett Hunter (1)

Austin Giorgio (2)

Spensha Baker (2)

Wilkes (2)

Jaron Strom (1)

JessLee (*2)

Bransen Ireland (2)

Jordan Kirkdorffer (2)

Dallas Caroline (3) **Alicia's team was full when she auditioned

Kelly (12)

Brynn Cartelli (2)

D.R. King (2)

Justin Kilgore (4) *Alicia used her block on Blake

Molly Stevens (2)

Dylan Hartigan (1)

Jackie Foster (2)

Jorge Eduardo (1) (but a 4 chair turn on The Voice Mexico)

Jamella (*2)

Alexa Capelli (2)

Teana Boston (1)

Hannah Goebel (4) *Kelly used her block on Alicia after Hannah sang an Alicia song :-)

Amber Sauer (1) **All other teams were full (if we are to believe the show's friendly edit monkeys)

Edited March 14, 2018 by PhD-Purgatory15

[Quickbeam]

Wasn’t Gary Edwards on Adams team...or did I just make that up in an audition haze....

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Thank you Quickbeam!!

[atlantaloves]

This season is really going to be great, can't wait. Last year started out well, but of course they got rid of the best singers.  I have hope! I love Kelly, maybe she will calm down just a little?

[Lily H]

I am really underwhelmed by this season's contestants. I've watched every audition show, and not one of them sticks in my mind.

[mamey2422]

This is my first-time watching The Voice (tuned in because I'm a huge Kelly Clarkson fan) so I'm still getting familiar with the structure of the show. I have really enjoyed the blind auditions, but also found the singers to be underwhelming. I remember four or five being real standouts but looks like there's a much-needed weeding out process coming up. 

Kelly chose a few major duds IMO - the Despacito guy and a few others that I think she was the solo chair turn. As a Kelly fan, I was nervous about how non-fans would react to her babbling. Fans of hers know she talks a lot and has not filter and mostly find it endearing. It's over the top sometimes for me. It seems like she's being mostly well-received. 

The judge's strategy is an interesting part of the show (vs. singer song choice strategy that is the biggest part of Idol).  She seems to be going for variety, where is Blake is the country guy. 

One weakness of the format is how singers who audition later are sort of penalized because they get held to a higher and higher bar as the judge's fill their team. Doesn't seem fair. 

Pet peeve of the show so far: how Kelly and Alicia often explain not turning because they are "looking for something specific." Seems like a cop out. I think all these singing competition shows would benefit from a "Simon Cowell" - someone who is more constructively critical. Adam does that a little - he'll mention specifics about their song choice or vocal performance. 

What is the winning "prize"? Does the winner automatically get a recording contract or money?

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Hey mamey2422, welcome :-)

The winner gets a recording contract and a cash prize....usually the 3 or 4 who make the final episode win cars as well.

I would take anything said by the judges during the blinds with a grain of salt because we are being shown the auditions not in chronological order (that's why the coaches wear the exact same outfits for every blind audition episode). You'll start to get constructive criticism from coach to their own team members in the mentor sessions before the battles, knockouts and live show performances...but in the panel setting it is very very rare (Adam, and Christina Aguilera from the earlier seasons) will give some occasionally. Mostly they don't want to be seen as throwing shade against another coach's artist.

A couple seasons ago Alicia won with a contestant named Chris Blue who was the final contestant picked for a team (like Amber this season). So it can be done, but yeah all the things being equal you want to go as early in the audition order as you possibly can. Unfortunately there really isn't a good fix for that. For a tv show you couldn't really have a 100 auditions and then have the coach's "draft" their teams. While probably the most fair, it just wouldn't make for good tv.

I can't speak for Kelly (and maybe even Alicia)...but Blake and Adam have been doing this for so long, they don't mind having a few people on their team who seem totally out of their depth. It makes their jobs setting up the battles easier to sort of "rig" who moves forward. And if you are super cynical about the process, the producers have a say in that as well.

Oh yeah, generally Blake's team skew country. This season he has 5 true country artists and another 3 who could be considered country "adjacent". That's pretty much par for the course.

[viajero]

I thought the first two singers (Genesis and Charane) were both pretty good.  Among the better blind auditions this season.  Dallas has an interesting tone to her voice, but she has to get control of those nerves.  The final two contestants seem like fodder for the battle rounds.

The overall level of talent during these blinds seems far below last season.  I hope some of these people step it up during the next rounds.  My other concern is that too many of the better singers are concentrated on Alicia's team.

9 hours ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

I can't speak for Kelly (and maybe even Alicia)...but Blake and Adam have been doing this for so long, they don't mind having a few people on their team who seem totally out of their depth. It makes their jobs setting up the battles easier to sort of "rig" who moves forward. And if you are super cynical about the process, the producers have a say in that as well.

I've noticed that in recent seasons Adam has started pressing his button really early in many performances, trying to get a jump on the other coaches.  He seems to be gambling that for every weaker performer he puts through by doing this, he's going to have a better chance of winning over a stronger performer.  The net result is that his battles tend to be pretty one-sided.

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Adam easily has the most 1 chair turns over the last three seasons. He'd have even more, but I think Blake buzzes in late on a lot of his two-chair turns knowing full well that the person is 90% likely to pick Adam anyway and he just does it to get a rise out of Adam. And it allegedly makes for better tv to have them banter back and forth for a few minutes rather than having three judges hem and haw over why they were so close but just didn't hit their buttons.

I liked Genesis's voice a lot. I actually liked Jackie Verna's audition as well. At first I thought she was just another delicate, whispy voiced contestant....but she shifted into high gear and then shifted again into almost a Miranda Lambert-esque country rock vibe. She's got an uphill battle on Team Adam, but I think she's got a chance to earn a steal from Blake or Kelly if he screws her over.

I'll actually trade out a season where it feels like a coronation waiting to happen (Sawyer, Alisan, or Jordan) for a season while maybe lacking in talent....feels a little bit more wide open (kind of like Lauren Duski and Chris Blue's season). So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm already annoyed about one battle on team Alicia they spoiled at very end of the episode in the previews. It better be solely for the purpose of baiting a steal, that's all I'm saying lol.

Edited March 15, 2018 by PhD-Purgatory15

[Bridget]

I am finally caught up with the current season and agree with everyone who has shared their thoughts about the auditioning artists having been less stellar AND those obnoxious teenagers (and their stage parents!) who have no business being on any stage. Don’t get me started on the vocally fried voices! 

What stuck out to me was that it seemed like maybe only three rejected singers were told to come back and audition next season. Usually almost every rejected singer is told “come back and see us”, but that didn’t happen this time. Not having to sit through bad singers again in the future is great, but it still doesn’t make up for the things that drive me nuts this season: vague excuses for not pushing a button (“I’m looking for someone specific”) and Alicia’s monotonous voice with tons of insincerity dripping off of each and every word that comes out of her mouth. 

[Prin Holmes]

Final team rosters/going into the Battles:

Team Adam
Rayshun LaMarr (2)
Drew Cole (2)
Davison (2)
Mia Boostrom (1)
Reid Umstattd (2)
Angel Bonilla (1)*
Stephanie Skipper (2)
Tish Haynes Keys (2)
Miya Bass (1)
Gary Edwards (2)
Genesis Diaz (2)
Jackie Verna (1)

Team Alicia
Britton Buchanan (3)**
Kelsea Johnson (3)
Jaclyn Lovey (2)
Christiana Danielle (3)
Jamai (2)
Johnny Bliss (4)**
Jordyn Simone (1)*
Megan Lee (1)*
Terrence Cunningham (4)
Livia Faith (3)
Shana Halligan (1)
Sharane Calister (2)

Team Kelly
Brynn Cartelli (2)
D.R. King (2)
Justin Kilgore (4)**
Molly Stevens (2)
Dylan Hartigan (1)
Jackie Foster (2)
Jorge Eduardo (1)
Jamella (2)*
Alexa Capelli (2)
Teana Boston (1)
Hannah Goebel (4)**
Amber Sauer (1)

Team Blake
Kyla Jade (2)
Kaleb Lee (2)
Pryor Baird (4)
Brett Hunter (1)
Austin Giorgio (2)
Spensha Baker (2)
WILKES (2)
JessLee (2)*
Jaron Strom (1)
Bransen Ireland (2)
Jordan Kirkdorffer (2)
Dallas Caroline (3)

The number in parentheses details the number of chairs that turned.  One asterisk means that this artist's Blind was montaged.  Two asterisks mean that the Blind had a Block used during it.